Cato Meets Dumbledore: A White Room Story
by earthling44
Summary: Companion fic to 'Hermione and Clove's Letter to Fanfiction'. Albus Dumbledore, the king of inspiring speeches wakes up in a white room with a strangely familiar boy from another universe. An attempt to explain Cato's OOC speech at the end of the Hunger Games movie.


**A/N: Hello everyone! To all of those people who nagged me to make a companion to **_**Hermione and Clove's letter to fanfiction**_**, here is what I have finally churned out. Enjoy your day! WARNING: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE HUNGER GAMES AND HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. I would be typing this on a gold-plated computer if I did.**

Albus Dumbledore woke up to a room which was much whiter than his own. He found this puzzling, but then again, it was not the strangest thing he had seen in his life by a long way. Dumbledore had seen many strange things in his life. The students and even the staff at Hogwarts didn't know the half of it.

What _was _strange was the muscular young man lying in the other side of the room. He resembled Cato from that _Hunger Games _book that he had to approve for the Muggle Studies book week. He looked as if he was waking up.

Dumbledore decided to greet him, because that would be the polite thing to do. "Why hello ther-"

"Stop!" yelled the boy. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Dumbledore was somewhat taken aback by this. People enjoyed asking him questions, but "Who are you?" and "What are you doing here?" were not really on his FAQ list. But, this being Dumbledore, he took it into his stride.

"I'm Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. I have no idea where we are, and therefore what I am doing here. So that we might find out our purpose for being here, I suggest you tell me your name and tell me what you are doing here."

"I'm Cato Extranius, District 2 male tribute for the 74th Annual Hunger Games. I know as much about where we are as you do, and I really need to get back to participating in said Hunger Games."

Dumbledore internally gasped (externally gasping would ruin the illusion that he had everything under control) as he realised where they were. They had found a wormhole between the litiverses! These legends had captivated him ever since he was a child, and he had long since given up hope of meeting a character from one of his favourite books. He set about conjuring a camera so that he could capture this discovery before attempting to solve the problem. After all, legend had it that time froze in litiverse wormholes, so he wouldn't be missing out on anything important.

As soon as he saw the wand, Cato balked. "You're a book character! From that _Harry Potter _series that Clove was obsessed with! She'd have loved to meet you…" He shook his head. "This is a strange dream."

Dumbledore saw the flash of pain in Cato's eyes when he said Clove's name. "It's not a dream; it's a litiverse wormhole, which is basically a space between two book worlds. Anyway, who is Clove? What happened to her?"

Cato sighed. "So a litiverse wormhole means that we're between two book worlds, which must mean I'm a book character too. Do you know anything about the Hunger Games?"

Suddenly, Dumbledore remembered the wiry girl with long dark hair from the book who had been Cato's "district partner". "Yes, I had to approve the book for the Muggle Studies book week. I didn't know you cared about her. I thought you were supposed to be the hardcore alpha-male who cared about nothing but winning. Well that's how it looked to the District 12 tribute, anyway. The only criticism I had of that book was how objective it was."

After getting over the fact that another litiverse had written a book about his games from the point of view of "those idiots from 12", Cato chuckled. "Yes, I guess I was supposed to be that. Thing is, despite how we're probably portrayed, we do have lives back in 2. Clove got put in Elite Training with me and a few other people when she was 10. Even though she was younger, she was very skilled, so we just accepted her. I used to go to Clove's house at Capitol-mas because holidays with my family are more like an endurance test than a celebration. She was like a sister to me, and her family accepted me the way the Elite Training crew accepted her. The whole time we're taught to pretend like we don't care, but we do. Not all of us are psychopaths, but if I win, I'll have to act like one for the rest of my life.

"Why did you volunteer then? I thought in District 2 the games are almost optional."

"Well, for me, from birth I had the choice of death one of 4 ways: die in the games, die because my father does not approve of me not volunteering, die in the quarries having survived my father's wrath or die of old age in a comfortable bed having won the games and given my district honour."

Dumbledore nodded. "However morbid it is, you do have a point."

Cato stared at Dumbledore for a bit before saying: "If my games are a book and you've read the end, do I die?"

Dumbledore nodded, "As much as I hate to say it, you do die, yes. But I have an idea. You can rewrite your death and get it to mean something. You seem to dislike the girl from 12, but she starts a rebellion which makes lives better for people all over Panem, including in your district. You can help her by coming up with an inspiring monologue expressing life from a career tribute's point of view, like being trained to kill, etc. Really milk the fact that you had to die either way. Then you get shot and devoured by mutts."

"Very dramatic," muttered Cato. "Is there any way I can not die?"

"Well, the thing is, by not dying it is up to her to incite the rebellion, and inciting rebellions is hard work and gets a lot of people she loves killed, so if you ask me, you got the better end of the stick. Severus Snape has to kill me, but it does mean I don't have to help Harry find the horcruxes."

"Don't worry, Clove told me he finds them all anyway."

"Good," Two portals opened up, one back to the 74th Hunger Games and one back to Hogwarts.

"One last thing," said Dumbledore, "I need to take a picture with you to prove that litiverse wormholes exist." Cato agreed because he was about to die anyway, and the first ever inter-litiverse "selfie" was created. The two men nodded and went their separate ways.

**Epilogue:** Cato's Dumbledore-inspired speech helps Katniss Everdeen unite the districts (even the career ones) to fight against the Capitol. Whilst looking through a box of things that were given to Harry Potter, Rose Weasley discovers a "selfie" that leads her to one of the most significant discoveries in Wizarding History.


End file.
